Probing sensory and associative semantics for animals and objects in normal subjects

Abstract

Neuropsychological studies of patients with “category-specific” semantic memory disorders have fuelled a debate concerning the organisation of knowledge. In particular it has been suggested that the reported double dissociation between knowledge of animals and living things on the one hand, and objects on the other, reflects a more fundamental division of semantic representation into functional-associative and sensory-visual domains. The present study attempted to investigate whether there were systematic differences along these dimensions in normal subjects using a sentence-verification technique. It was found that response times were significantly longer for verification of statements concerning the sensory attributes of objects than for statements about their associative attributes. In the case of animals, there were no differences in response latency to associative or sensory statements. In the light of this previously unreported fractionation within verbal semantics, the possible consequences for models of semantic memory are discussed.